1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filling device, especially for a weighing device, and to a process for capturing a filling.
2. Description of the Related Art
In installation engineering, different products have often to be handled. Thereby, the products are transported, stored, distributed, sorted, processed and weighed between and within different machines.
In many cases of installation engineering, so for example at weighing devices, a monitoring of different transport paths should be performed. Thereby changes in the transport behaviour, for example changes regarding a flow, an average filling amount or the like should be captured. The nature of the product is thereby often not homogenous and the single products can be from granular to coarse; their shape can be uneven and the physical properties can vary.
In addition, there is the unpredictable behaviour of the transportability by interacting of the single pieces via adhering, wedging or clumping. In practice, that leads to the disturbance of the even product distribution on a transport area. Local accumulations of product or gaps can arise. In unfavourable cases, a transport in intended transport grooves can be locally total blocked and the groove can run dry. Thereby, also the product feed in adjacent grooves can be disturbed, and the initial distribution can also be limited. Under certain circumstances, such an accumulation at an end of the groove can pretend a complete filling and can completely prevent a refilling. Consequently, this leads to an undersupply of all other transport grooves.
The results of such disturbances are detected by the scale much later, namely then when the subsets to be weighed get lighter and lighter. Then, the scale tries to change the parameters, which control the product supply, to counteract a product shortage. Sometimes that leads to the solution of the problem, however, much later after the occurrence per se and with the consequence of a general disturbance of the supply system, which normally works well. Fluctuations in the performance and in the accuracy of the scale are the result.
This can however also lead to much severe consequences even to the impossibility of finding a combination in the combination scale, to frequent re-dosings, over-fillings, throwing-offs and performance shutdowns or the complete stand still. Then, a manual intervention is necessary and it takes a certain time, until the scale finds back to the usual rhythm.
To guarantee a trouble-free procedure, additional information about the nature and distribution of the product at certain locations or areas within the devices is therefore frequently required. Thereby, a plurality of sensors is provided, which enable to capture for example the distance, the colour, the velocity, different material characteristics etc. with different measuring principles. This information usually relates to a measuring point or a measuring area.
According to the gained information, decisions about the further proceeding of the monitored process can be made, data regarding the single processes, for example about their state, tendency or efficiency can be determined. Especially information about the fact how much product of which type is present at an observed location, depict the “IS”-state of a process. Different control algorithms, suitable for the requirements and aims, can then be used. In this way, a controllable process should be ensured.
Such sensors, for example so-called 3D-sensors, are indeed generally known, so for example from the documents U.S. Pat. No. 8,350,847 B2, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012 075 534 A1, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011 292 036 A1 or U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012 056 982 A1. However, dependent on the area to be observed, a plurality of these sensors is needed. The number of sensors depends especially on the fact which measuring area they detect in the single case and how many partial areas are really of interest within the total area to be observed by the entirety of sensors. At a fixed number of fixed localized partial areas, the respective number of sensors has then to be used, each partial area therefore requires a separate sensor. In the case of a change of the number or the localization of those partial areas, new sensors have to be used, or the existing sensors have to be repositioned.
This procedure is expensive and complicated. Furthermore, an increased time consumption for installing and setting the sensors is required.
It is therefore an object of the invention to avoid at least one of the mentioned disadvantages and to enable an improved product filling.